Eastpointe man jailed as child predator

An Eastpointe man was sentenced Tuesday to serve seven years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release after being convicted of attempting to meet an 15-year-old girl for sex in Canada, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Carlos Castaneda, 40, was charged with attempted travel in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct and online enticement after an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent responded to an ad he had placed seeking sex with a minor female. He has been in custody since his arrest in July.

“Protecting children from dangerous online predators is one of HSI’s highest priorities,” William Hayes, acting special agent in charge of HSI Detroit, said in a statement.

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According to a federal complaint, federal agents spotted an online classified ad on motherless.com, an online website used by adults seeking to have sexual encounters with children without the child’s mother’s knowledge.

An HSI agent, posing as the father of a 15-year-old girl, agreed to met Castaneda at a hotel in Canada for the supposed tryst. Castaneda was arrested while crossing into Canada at the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. Investigators found numerous condoms and a small pair of pink panties on him during a search, according to court documents.

A forensic search of his cell phone turned up child pornographic images including children engaged in oral sex with adults. Castaneda also told agents that he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl when he was in his 20s and he has had sexual attractions to the girls in his 10-year-old son’s class. Federal prosecutors said that shows he is willing to act on his attraction to children.

“We hope that cases like this one will raise public awareness that child predators are using the Internet to find victims,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a statement. “While technology enables criminals to exploit children, that same technology permits law enforcement investigators to detect them.”

The investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI initiative to protect children from sexual predators. HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators or suspicious activity through a toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE.